Privacy, please: S.A.'s new tigers won't be seen for months

Updated 9:05 pm, Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Smithsonian National Zoo also has a pair Sumatran tiger cubs, born Aug. 5 to tigress Damai. Precautions are being taken there, too.

The Smithsonian National Zoo also has a pair Sumatran tiger cubs, born Aug. 5 to tigress Damai. Precautions are being taken there, too.

Photo: Smithsonian National Zoo Photo

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In this photo provided by ABC, Lawrence Summers, the top White House economics adviser, is interviewed on ABC's This Week in Washington Sunday, April 4, 2010. Summers said Sunday that putting people back to work is an administration "preoccupation." He said the jobless trend has turned, but that there's still a long way to go to recover all the jobs lost during the economic downturn. (AP Photo/ABC, Fred Watkins) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO ARCHIVES; NO SALES

In this photo provided by ABC, Lawrence Summers, the top White House economics adviser, is interviewed on ABC's This Week in Washington Sunday, April 4, 2010. Summers said Sunday that putting people back to

The San Antonio Zoo's female Sumatran tiger, named Kemala, has given birth two possibly two cubs. A monitor by the tiger enclosure shows a dim live image of the mother nursing her cubs on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013. less

The San Antonio Zoo's female Sumatran tiger, named Kemala, has given birth two possibly two cubs. A monitor by the tiger enclosure shows a dim live image of the mother nursing her cubs on Thursday, Aug. 8, ... more

Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News

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Raguno, the San Antonio Zoo's male Sumatran tiger, sleeps in an enclosure on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013. His mate, Kemala, has given birth two possibly two cubs.

Raguno, the San Antonio Zoo's male Sumatran tiger, sleeps in an enclosure on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013. His mate, Kemala, has given birth two possibly two cubs.

Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News

Privacy, please: S.A.'s new tigers won't be seen for months

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Baby tigers and new mama tigers prefer privacy, it would seem.

Since the furry orange bundles of joy came into the world at the San Antonio Zoo on or around Aug. 4, no media have been allowed to catch a shot of the Sumatran tiger cubs on camera.

But there's good reason for that, zoo Director Steve McCusker said Wednesday.

“As dreadful as it sounds, often they don't know what to do with them; they can starve, they cannot be nursed, they can step on them, roll on them, eat them — we don't want any of that to happen,” McCusker said. “We're being as cautious and conservative as we can. They have bonded up to this point. We just don't want to blow that.”

“They're not going to risk her rejecting the cubs,” Hilsenroff said from the AAZV offices in northern Florida. “They make behavioral judgments on the mother, and if (the mother) feels the stress of anyone getting closer, anyone other than keepers or anyone they're used to smelling, she'll oftentimes kill the cubs or abandon them.”

Zoo officials said the public and the media likely wouldn't be seeing the cubs until late October or November.

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Currently, the cubs have no teeth, their eyes and ears are closed and they can't walk, “sort of like kittens,” McCusker said.

“They don't even defecate or urinate on their own. The mother has to stimulate them,” McCusker said.

Hilsenroff noted that many zoos take the mother's litter history into account; if she's safely cared for other litters of cubs, zoo officials may relax some of the restrictions. But since the mama, Kemala, has had no prior litters, it's not unusual for even zookeepers to keep their distance.

Typically, zookeepers move dangerous animals into a separate enclosure to put out their food and clean their habitats, but in the case of a first-time, new mother tiger, they make an exception.

“Keepers that she knows go in in the morning or evening, slide food down a ramp feeder, and they leave,” McCusker said. “The issue is that she — the mother — knows who those people are. They've been doing it for years. Those are the people who are taking care of her because we don't want anything new that would upset her or make her nervous about the situation.”

The Smithsonian National Zoo welcomed a pair of Sumatran tiger cubs Aug. 5, born to tigress Damai. Their zookeepers also are taking precautions to keep from upsetting the new mother. Tuesday, a keeper started noninvasive training with the cubs.

The keeper “went into the cubbing den; she did not touch the cubs when she did that. She was in there for just a few minutes,” said Devin Murphy, a National Zoo spokeswoman. “Our goal is always to have mom care for the cubs.”

If the mother tiger did abandon her cubs (but didn't kill them in one way or another), zookeepers would have to raise them by hand, a work- and time-intensive process that doesn't allow the cubs to be properly socialized, thus jeopardizing their own potential future offspring.

The sex of the San Antonio cubs remains unknown, and they have not yet been named.

Hilsenroff said that many zoos don't include creatures under 1 year old when counting animals in collections, due to the high rate of infant mortality.

Sumatran tigers are an endangered species; the World Wildlife Foundations estimates fewer than 400 exist today.

Meanwhile, these fluffy feline babies are going unseen, save for a closed-circuit, night-vision video feed that's displayed on a monitor outside the staff entry to the enclosure.

“I gotta agree, there's not much cuter than the baby cats,” Hilsenroff said. “The truth be known, they put the animals first, and whatever's going to be best for the animals is what they're going to do.”